Humans are naturally curious about the future. We want to know what the future holds for us, for our families and our communities. We talk about it. Debate it. Write about it. We create communications such as books, movies, plays and TV shows to express possible futures. We predict and forecast. We worry and we hope about it.

Because organizations and the industries in which they operate are complex systems that adapt to change, the stakeholders to which you’re communicating on behalf of your organization want to know how your organization perceives the future, how it will adapt to change, and what it’s doing now to achieve a desired future. 

Employees want to know if their organization will be a great place to work not just today, but several years from now (should they continue to invest in their career with your organization or go somewhere else?). Customers, especially those that invest in products and systems that will need long-term support, want to know if your organization will be around five or 10 years to serve their needs. Competitors want to know where your organization is headed and how new product innovations, mergers, or acquisitions, will impact the future of your industry.

Whether you realize it or not, from time to time, your organization is invited, and sometimes forced, to speak to the future. Analysts seek forecasts, business media ask about company projections, influencers look for insights on consumer trends. Understanding how your organization thinks about the future is critical to communicating clearly to various stakeholder groups. 

Applying some basic foresight concepts, how can you communicate the future more effectively for your organization? Here are some tips to consider:

1. Inventory how you’re already communicating the future – Chances are that your organization already is communicating the future through vehicles such as annual reports, forecasts, conference speaking opportunities, and media interviews. As a communicator, inventory all the many ways that your organization is sharing views about the future and who is speaking about the future for your organization.

2. Develop a cohesive message strategy about the future – Your organization probably has specific messages about its brand(s), products, or about specific industry issues, but do you have a key message strategy for the future? Consider developing key messages that envision where your organization will be in five, 10 or 20 years from now for itself, as well as for the industry in which you operate. While there are many possible futures, focus on the most desired future, aligning it with your organization’s stated vision, mission and values.

3. Scan the Future – Within the communications function at your organization, set up a process to scan for change. Scan the media for news of disruption and trends, conduct stakeholder surveys, network with industry influencers to gain insights, seek out scholarly papers – signals of change are all around us and can help enhance how your organization communicates about the future. Use this scanning process to alert your organization’s leaders about possible near-term and long-term changes that may affect the organization. For example, let’s say you work for an organization that sells products to hunters. The growth in eSports among Alpha Gen (today’s youth) may concern your company as it may signal a long-term decline in hunter participation.

4. Keep it human – While talking about technology or futuristic events is sexy, what people really want to know is how will change affect their lives. Frame variables of change in human terms. For example, as our country transitions to renewable energy (wind, solar, hydrogen, etc.), what will that change mean in how we heat our homes, drive our cars, or obtain power to keep the lights on for our small business. 

5. Understand assumptions – How can we communicate the future when we base perceptions about the future on assumptions? Even within an organization one department may perceive the future of the organization or the industry differently from another department. For clear communications, it’s critical to understand how different stakeholders view the future. 

6. Create conversations – Communicating the future of an organization is at its essence, about storytelling – creating a narrative that takes your organization from today to tomorrow. To tell the most powerful story, it’s fundamental to get people talking about the future to hear those voices and to gather the insights to create a clear yet inclusive story. Consider holding listening sessions and workshops among your stakeholder groups to invite conversation about the future to inform how your organization speaks about the future.

7. Imagine the unimaginable – Most organizations create plans for the coming year. Hours upon hours are spent in planning retreats. While it’s important to address the most urgent issues, take time to imagine the unimaginable. What if a country opposed to Western nations cut undersea cables that connect people worldwide through the Internet? What if another, more severe pandemic hit our country? What if the Supreme Court were to rule on a case that affected a group of your employees or customers? What would your organization do in these or other potential events? 

8. Embrace the future – Thinking about the future is a mindset, and it takes time to develop. To help everyone in your organization get there, take small steps to incorporate the future in your organization’s communication. For example, many organizations do a year-in-review or annual report. How about doing a year-ahead report or a 10-year outlook? For that next planning retreat, invite staff to imagine where your organization will be in 10 years. 

9. Talking about the future makes for great content – Creating content offers a powerful opportunity to position your organization as a thought leader. Leverage your owned media, internal communications and external communications to share stories about trends, to draft bylined articles in business and industry trades about variables that may affect your industry, or to create videos and podcasts about the impact your organizations wants to have on the future. 

There are many futures ahead. There’s a future where your organization is 10x larger than it is. There’s a future where it’s acquired by a competitor. There’s a future where it’s smaller than it is today. Within all of these futures, there’s a preferred future – the future that your organization wants for itself, its industry and the communities it operates. Your stakeholders want to know what your organization and its leaders want for itself. Be bold, be clear, and be transparent – define and communicate what you want for the future.

Stephen Dupont, APR, Fellow PRSA, is vice president of public relations and branded content with the Minneapolis creative firm Pocket Hercules (pockethercules.com). Dupont writes and speaks frequently about the intersection between communications and foresight. To learn more about Dupont, visit his blog at stephendupont.co or email him at stephen.dupont@pockethercules.com.

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By Stephen Dupont, APR, Fellow PRSA

In April 1953, the Pasadena, Calif. office of the Associated Press issued a story about the future of telephones. At the time, all phones were “landlines” and utilized rotary dials.

The article was headlined, “There’ll be no Escape in the Future from Telephones,” and ran in newspapers across the country. It quoted Mark R. Sullivan, president of San Francisco-based Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, who said: “In its final development, the telephone will be carried about by the individual, perhaps as we carry a watch today. It probably will require no dial or equivalent, and I think the users will be able to see each other, if they want, as they talk.”

By the way, the FaceTime video feature for iPhones was introduced by Apple in June 2010.

Fast-forward to 2041

Now, imagine if you will, it’s the year 2041. What do you think the future of public relations will be like in the United States and Canada? 

As someone who has practiced public relations for more than 25 years, and who also studies foresight, I’ve wondered about this many times. As I speak to PRSA members across the country, in person and online, as well as to classrooms of college students studying strategic communications, I look at some of the younger members of our profession and wonder: What will their professional lives look like 20 or even 30 years from now?  Whatever might occur in our profession, budding strategic communications professionals need consider adopting a futures mindset, like Mark R. Sullivan did 53 years ago.

Thinking about the Future

There is one clear rule that professional futurists acknowledge when they develop scenarios for their clients: There is no one future. 

As we look ahead 20 or 30 years, there are any number of possible futures. Some are more probable than others, and they range from horrible futures to incredibly bright futures. The reality is likely to be somewhere in between. As we live through these present times, which brim with complexity, it’s important to understand that what is a bright future to one person may be a dismal future to someone in another part of the world, or to persons of a different race, sexual identity, religion or creed. The lesson we can learn from history is it is multi-layered, like an onion, and that possible futures are equally complex. 

Drivers of Change

Change happens continuously. 

It can happen gradually, like a slowly dripping faucet – drip…drip…drip – one change building upon another. Did you know, for example, according to ComputerWorld, that in 1946, AT&T offered the first commercial mobile telephone service to subscribers in St. Louis? And yet, because it was so expensive, it had few takers. 

Change also can happen very suddenly. I remember sitting in the lunchroom with my colleagues at Carmichael Lynch Spong Public Relations on the morning of 9/11 watching the TV in utter disbelief. Everyone in the room knew that event would change everything. Today, 20 years later, we are still experiencing the ripple effects of that historic event. impactful change.

When it comes to the public relations field, I believe a handful of factors will drive change within our profession over the next two decades. These include:

More Attention Now – We already live in an attention economy where brands seek our attention and attempt to keep it for as long as possible. This will become increasingly more difficult as the amount of commercial messages (written, audio, video, virtual) will continue to increase and bombard our senses. Today, many marketers measure success by impressions; tomorrow, with implantable chips, we will measure (because we will actually be able to do so) how long – in seconds – a brand was able to keep a person’s attention.

Traditional Media – Print media (newspapers, magazines, books), as well as broadcast media (TV, radio, cable) are undergoing huge changes as the news media continues to digitize online. Meanwhile, the delivery of news is being replaced by social media. In 2041, everything will be digital. Most news will be delivered by video or through a virtual reality experience. What impacts or challenges might that create for a free press, a cornerstone of our democracy? 

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Mining, Automation – The use of AI, data mining, automation is already making advances into the world of public relations and will drive further change in the years to come. AI-driven software will write news stories, distribute the news, and select the news you view or hear. AI, combined with data mining, will ensure that more people within your target market are actually exposed to your news. And, by the way, your new work colleague may well be an android.  

Mobile Communications – As I mentioned, change can happen rapidly. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit and most public relations professionals were forced to work remotely, we immediately turned to online video technology, such as Zoom, and online productivity tools, such as Slack, which allowed us to work and communicate from anywhere. According to a  Frost and Sullivan report, more than 88% of C-Suite leaders say video makes meetings more effective, and more than 80% say it reduces meeting times, accelerates decision-making, and improves productivity. We may hunger for in-person events and meetings, but the fact is, video will just become more ubiquitous in everything we do to communicate in the future. 

Threats of Autocracy – The foundation of the public relations industry is the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees our right to free speech. However, across the world, including in major democracies, autocrats are consolidating power and abridging free speech rights. When we lose free speech, public relations becomes nothing more than propaganda. The second rule of professional futurists: don’t assume everything stays the same, and this includes our democracy.

Trust – Trust is the oil the greases the flow of ideas, goods and money. When people or groups stop trusting each other, paralysis sets in. This is what happened in the financial crash of 2008, when banks stopped trusting one another. Unfortunately, trust in our own government, according to the Pew Research Center, is at an all-time low. 

Dealing with the Consequences of Global Warming – Every future for every person on this planet will be affected by climate change. All organizations, public and private, will become consumed by it. The era of announcing climate change goals, communicating actions to thwart global warming, and reporting on sustainability are here and will continue through the next several decades. 

And Still More Change – The mainstream acceptance of electric vehicles, the end of the combustion engine, factory grown meat, the closure of the last coal plant, a Moon-base colony, the first landing of humans on Mars, the rise of China as a direct competitor to the U.S., the migration of millions due to rising sea levels – these are just a few of the numerous other changes that will affect us over the next 20 years. According to a 2019 Pew Research study, only a narrow majority of U.S. adults (56%) say they are somewhat or very optimistic about what the country will be like in 2050. On the flipside, both Pew Research and an annual study by Chapman University report that many Americans are pessimistic, stressful and actually fearful of specific types of change coming in the years ahead. This is the world into which we are heading. 

Possible Futures

What do these trends mean for the future of public relations? I believe the two primary drivers of change for public relations will be technology, which already have had an immense impact on media, and trust – our trust in the governments, institutions, groups and individuals who share information. 

It’s at this intersection where we could see a range of futures, from an authoritarian future where technology is used to sow distrust with misinformation and fake news – where no one or organization is trusted – to a future where humans work with technology, such as AI, to restore, rebuild and reimagine trust and transparency. 

What To Do Now to Prepare for 2041

Here’s one thing that won’t change: storytelling. In fact, I believe in an all-electric, all-digital world, it will be more important than ever. 

At the very heart of the public relations profession lies two truths: we are storytellers and we are the keepers of trust for the organizations, groups or persons we represent. Organizations will continue to rely upon professionally trained communicators to tell their stories. 

To continue to fulfill that responsibility, in the years to come, focus on these critical skills:

Think Human-to-Human – AI and androids can’t replace humans. They’ll do a lot of things we can do more efficiently, but it’s impossible to replicate human empathy or human purpose. Stop thinking about B2B or B2C and start thinking about communicating human to human.

Writing – You can push a button to launch a million-dollar digital campaign but it’s useless without compelling headlines. The same with social media or any type of communication. For whatever medium, the written word is a reflection of thinking. Focus every day on making your writing more relevant, more concise, and more persuasive.

Creativity – Public relations professionals who differentiate themselves with their creativity, paired with their knowledge of how to leverage technology, will win the day in 2041.

Think Multimedia – While writing will continue to be the focus of communications, telling those stories will change with technology. Virtual reality, for example, is still in its infancy. Keep up with new communications technology.

Soft Skills – Continue to refine your soft skills – presenting, networking, sharing, leadership, critical thinking, analysis, scenario planning. Connecting with humans and being able to think critically will still be important skills.

Media Relations – The news media comprise the fourth pillar of modern democracies. In 2041, if we have maintained our democratic principles, there will still be news outlets in which to communicate important stories. Today’s upstart media will likely be tomorrow’s traditional media. There will be new social media platforms. There will be new influencers who reflect new generations yet to come (for example, Alpha Gen and Beta Gen). But the skill of persuading a reporter or an influencer to share a story will still be critical in 2041. 

Communicating Vision – Most important of all, public relations professionals need to work on communicating visions of the future for their organizations and learning how to communicate change in a world that will change dramatically over the next 20 years. Because the fact is, people don’t like change – confident leaders who communicate well can help them overcome their fears.

Stephen Dupont, APR, Fellow PRSA, is VP of Public Relations and Branded Content for Pocket Hercules (www.pockethercules.com), a brand creative firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He blogs at www.stephendupont.co. Dupont also is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists. Contact him at stephen.dupont@pockethercules.com.

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By Stephen Dupont, APR, Fellow PRSA

On September 12, 1962, in a speech given at Rice University, President John F. Kennedy put forth a vision of the future that inspired generations to come:

“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”

In the years since, we have been challenged by other visions, from Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of equity for people of color in a world dominated by systemic white supremacy to Elon Musk’s vision of colonizing Mars by 2050. 

Is Your Organization’s Vision Visionary?

Many organizations have vision statements. But, based on my observation, often these statements feel more like big goals or feel-good statements posted on a website or in an employee handbook that often go ignored by employees and customers. 

Why? Because they don’t really convey a sense of the future.

A vision describes a preferred future – an actual desired state of change that an organization or group of people are working toward bringing about. 

When you or your organization thinks about the future, I think it’s important to consider that there are many possibly futures, some probable futures, and the future we desire. For example, I invite you to look at your own life and career – as you work toward your vision of the “perfect life” or the “career of your dreams,” you also may come to understand that there are many other scenarios for where you may be in 10, 20 or 30 years from now. The same is true for organizations, governments and movements. 

So, in communicating a vision for an organization, a movement or a leader, it’s important to ask:

“Is our vision an actual vision or is it just a goal?”

“Have we considered other futures and does our vision reflect the desired future that we want?”

To this second question, I would encourage your organization’s leadership to work with a professional futurist or strategic foresight professional, to clearly understand your organization’s vision – or to revisit a current vision statement to confirm your organization’s commitment to it.

For example, I was invited to help a nonprofit spiritual retreat center revisit its vision and mission statement about 20 years after it was founded. The retreat center, a collaborative effort between a Catholic religious order and the local Episcopal church wondered if it had truly lived up to its ecumenical vision. After numerous interviews, I concluded that this nonprofit was ready to expand the box of its vision and welcome all – not just Catholics or Episcopalians, but other Christian and non-Christian faith traditions to share in its unique, transformative retreat experience.

The value of a vision

As you take a closer look at your organization’s vision statement, it’s important to consider the value of having a vision. When Space X says it seeks to “Make Humanity Multiplanetary” it’s offering a vision that goes beyond making rockets that will take humans to the Moon or Mars. That’s a vision that provides clarity for every person who works there and their individual decisions. Vision, along with purpose, is what today’s workers, as well as customers, seek in organizations. 

An April 12, 2017 article, “Firm of the Future,” written by a number of senior consultants for the management consulting firm Bain & Company, noted: “Many of these younger employees, along with many older ones, also want to work for a company that pursues a higher purpose in addition to profits. CEOs have become acutely sensitive to this concern; in conversation after conversation with leaders, we are struck by how quickly the talk moves to how a company can engage and inspire team members with a vision of making a difference in the world.”

Communicating Vision

So how should you communicate your organization’s vision? Here are several tips to consider:

Use storytelling to help people understand your vision – While representing a trucking company, we identified people within the trucking company, including drivers, whose stories conveyed “a trucking company that was changing trucking.” 

Create a visual image – The vision of the first person walking on the Moon or the vision of cleaning up the giant garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean are crystal clear. 

Avoid the vague; be bold – A vision that says, “we intend to improve the lives of our customers” is like saying, “the sun will rise tomorrow.” Vision statements call for boldness and they call for looking beyond the horizon that everyone else can see to the horizons that will emerge 10, 20 or 30 years from now. 

Communicate the impact of the vision – When an organization says its vision is to eliminate cancer from the face of the Earth, it’s saying: “We intend to put ourselves out of business.”

Map a path to how you will achieve and measure it – Stating a vision without stating how your organization intends to reach the vision are empty words. Leaders need to involve employees at all levels to map out a plan to achieve the vision.

Create vision ambassadors – Effective leaders identify internal influencers to share the vision with others throughout the organization. Similarly, they invite external influencers to serve as ambassadors for the vision to help reach key stakeholder groups.

The medium is the message – If leaders want to project a desired future, then they should consider using the latest technology, such as virtual reality, to help employees, customers, investors or other stakeholders better comprehend the organization’s vision for the future. 

The Bottom Line: For professional communicators, vision statements provide a focused sense of direction that can inform all communications, internal and external. Don’t overlook your organization’s vision statement. If it seems off, or is too vague, or isn’t bold enough, make it a strategic priority to change it. 

Stephen Dupont, APR, Fellow PRSA, is vice president of public relations and branded content with the Minneapolis creative firm Pocket Hercules (pockethercules.com). Dupont writes and speaks frequently about futures mindset and foresight. To learn more about Dupont, visit his blog, stephendupont.co, or contact him through LinkedIn.

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By Stephen Dupont, APR

After the past year, many of us hoped to put 2020 to rest and move onto the next year as fast as possible. 

Unfortunately, I’m afraid to say, 2020 may have been just the warm-up for another year of tumultuous change. 

As evidence, I only need to point to the first week of this year in which:

• Several thousand Trump supporters, incited by President Trump and other Republican leaders, stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election results;

• Despite the attack, Congress certified the election of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris – but only after eight U.S. senators and 139 U.S. representatives objected on the grounds of election fraud;

• Congressional leaders then called for removal of President Trump by either his resignation, impeachment, or through the use of the 25th Amendment;

• Two Democratic candidates defeated their Republican incumbents for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats;

• COVID-19 deaths reached more than 365,000 in the U.S. alone with more than 4,000 COVID-19 deaths recorded in one day – Jan. 7, 2020.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average, seeming to defy all sense of reality, closed at 31,097 on Jan. 8, 2020.

2020 will be hard to beat in terms of pain, suffering and just plain craziness. Lest we forget, in 2020 we witnessed the following events that seem like they happened ages ago, such as:

• the impeachment of President Trump;
• murder hornets;
• the release of three UFO videos by the Pentagon (yes, that really happened!);
• the discovery of water on the moon;
• an international pandemic that has infected millions and killed hundreds of thousands;
• the stock market crash in Spring (including the three worst point drops in U.S. history);
• the Dow Jones Industrial Average breaking 30,000;
• the death of George Floyd and subsequent protests; and 
• the death of U.S. Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 

After all this tumult, how can you prepare for the year ahead? 

I would suggest that you consider adopting a futurist mindset. While we cannot fully predict the future, we can envision possible futures, probable futures and the futures we desire. In considering those scenarios, we can take proactive steps to secure a future that we desire – whether that future is 30 days, 30 months or 30 years away.

As a first step, as you think about the year ahead, consider a range of futures, from worst-case events to extremely positive events. More than likely, we’ll end up somewhere in between. 

However, one thing important thing to consider in assessing 2021 trends: Don’t assume things will occur just as they have in the past. Let’s be real here: Did you ever expect to be living through an international pandemic and to witness a potential coup take place on the U.S. government? 

Like I said, be ready and prepared for other possibilities, both good and bad. 

To help you anticipate the year to come, here are several trends to watch, along with some suggested actions that you may want to consider:

Accountability, Healing and a Call for a New Civility – The attempted attack on Congress shook Americans to their core while the rest of the world watched in disbelief.  As Congress and Federal law enforcement agencies seek accountability, look to newly elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to seek healing for our country and call for a new sense of cultural civility and civil discourse. As part of this process, watch for a second impeachment of President Trump as well as Congressional hearings to understand exactly what happened and who was involved in inciting the violence.

Action: In light of the events in Washington D.C., your organization should be prepared to publicly state where it stands on these matters. Does your organization condone the behavior of those who participated the insurrection? Does your organization support politicians who supported it? For example, Marriott International, the health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield, bank holding company Commerce Bancshares and Citibank have all announced that they will stop donating to any member of Congress who objected to the certification of the Electoral College vote. 

Former Republican party chair Michael Steele said companies are increasingly concerned that, if they contribute to Republicans, customers “now will associate me, my product and my brand with a party that has fomented and supported insurrection.”

If ever there was a time to re-visit the values of your organization and to emphasize those values, this is it.

More Hard Times Ahead – At the time I’m writing this, more than 370,000 Americans have died from Covid-19 since February 2020, and until a vaccine can be fully administered by Summer 2021 there are estimates that as many as 500,000 in the U.S. alone will perish. With the incoming Biden-Harris Administration, we will witness a 180-degree change in how a new presidential administration talks about the virus, speaks with empathy for all that America has lost, and attempts to persuade Americans to wear masks while we patiently wait to be vaccinated. In addition, you will see a dramatic shift in the speed to vaccinate more Americans faster. In the meantime, watch for a large stimulus spending bill to provide financial relief to Americans and small businesses. 

Action: Two things – do not let your organization let its guard down now! We are months away from the “herd immunity” achieved through the vaccination of millions of Americans. Keep instructing employees to follow proper safety precautions, such as wearing face masks, which are scientifically proven to reduce spread of the virus. Second – learn from this extreme event: it is predicted that, by the end of this decade, we may face yet another pandemic. 

Vaccine Acceptance – Vaccinating the world from COVID-19 will be one of the greatest public health initiatives in our lifetimes. However, before that can start, you need to convince people to get vaccinated. After all, a vaccine won’t stop the pandemic, only vaccinated people will.  Fortunately, such acceptance appears to be increasing: In December, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that three- quarters of Americans would definitely or probably get the COVID-19 vaccine (U.S. News and World Report, Dec. 15, 2020).  As Dr. Anthony Fauci was quoted in the Washington Post (Nov. 23, 2020): “75 percent of Americans need to be vaccinated for America to return to normal.”

Action: For America’s businesses to return to normal, their workers need to get vaccinated. Corporate communicators should be ready with communications that inspire workers to get vaccinated. Communicators should prepare to communicate a policy where employees will not be allowed back into a workplace until they’ve been vaccinated. 

COVID Baby Bust – We won’t know for sure until after Dec. 1, 2020 (nine months after the pandemic hit the U.S.), but experts forecast a COVID Baby Bust. As reported by Joe Pinsker in the Nov. 24, 2020 issue of The Atlantic, economists and sociologists predict a short-term decline (300,000 to 500,000 fewer births) nationwide as a result of health fears related to COVID-19 and the economic strain (mass unemployment) that COVID-19 is having on families. This will have an immediate impact on businesses (fewer maternity leaves, lower maternity sales) and in the long-term (five+ years) will lead to school closings. 

Action: Depending upon your industry, a baby bust may be bad news. Consider bringing together leaders or communicators within your organization to analyze the immediate and long-term impact of a COVID-19 baby bust on your organization.

National Day of COVID-19 Remembrance – While a National Day of COVID-19 Remembrance was held on Oct. 4, 2020, it may not have caught your attention. Later this year, when the pandemic is more under control, watch for new calls to remember those who have perished as a result of the virus.

Action: Nearly all Americans will be touched in one way or another by COVID-19. Consider how your organization will honor those who died or continue to suffer longer-term health consequences as a result of the deadly virus. Because of the pandemic, Americans have not been able to properly mourn.

Food Insecure Americans – An estimated 50+ million Americans will be food insecure as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, according to a National Geographic report (Nov. 24, 2020). In addition, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, an estimated 6 million American households missed their September mortgage or rent payments (latest available stats). As uncertainty continues regarding more direct aid (for example, $2,000 direct payments to Americans), the photos and videos tell a grim picture of people waiting to get food from overburdened food shelves. Until more Americans are vaccinated, mass unemployment will continue, leaving millions in need of food and shelter.

Action: Re-consider your organization’s charitable contributions. Consider mobilizing employees or your community to donate food to food shelves as well as to local schools, which often have food programs for kids.

Mental Health Issues/Burn Out – According to a recent Stress in America 2020 survey (Oct. 20, 2020), the American Psychological Association (APA) said COVID-19, the economy, racism, and the presidential election caused high levels of stress among Americans, and the impacts will be felt in the months and years ahead. In a separate survey, FlexJobs and Mental Health America found that 75% of people have experienced burnout at work, with 40% saying they’ve felt it during the pandemic specifically. “This compounding stress will have serious health and social consequences if we don’t act now to reduce it,” said Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD, APA’s chief executive officer.

Action: Internal communicators should work with leaders to craft relevant messages that empathize with employees who are feeling stress. In addition, work with HR to promote services and options to help employees reduce their stress.

Fewer Journalists – For many public relations professionals, media relations is still the bread and butter of the business. However, if you’ve been feeling that there are fewer reporters to pitch, your perceptions are not that far off. A July 21, 2020 report by Axios predicted that more than 11,000 journalists would their jobs in 2020. These layoffs are part of a long-term trend — according to Poynter (Oct. 28, 2020), there are literally 1,800 fewer U.S. newspapers than in 2004, reducing local news opportunities for your clients or organization. 

Action: Communicators, working with Marketing, HR, and other departments, need to keep investing in owned media, communicating directly to customers and other stakeholders. At the same time, communicators also need to keep building their networks of influencers, who will likely include former journalists who are creating their own media entities (blogs, vlogs, podcasts) and building their own fanbases based on their media niches or expertise. 

One more suggestion: The world of PR depends upon free, independent journalism at all levels. Consider subscribing to magazines and newspapers. Consider donating to public media. Consider directing donations to support journalism schools. We need unbiased reporting to keep democracy alive (as well as the marketplace of ideas)!

Business Travel and Work at Office: Never the Same Again – In an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin at a recent New York Times conference (reported by Business Insider, Nov. 23, 2020), Bill Gates predicted that “over 50 percent of business travel and over 30 percent of days in the office will go away.” Citing cost savings, businesses will demand a higher threshold for business travel. A downside to this, noted Gates, is that people are meeting fewer new people as video calls are set up by appointment. 

Action: Communicators will need to work with their HR and Marketing counterparts to think through the value of business travel (in particular, to trade shows and conferences) and of time spent in the office with co-workers.

Electric Vehicles and Clean Energy – The reshaping of America’s energy system in undeniable, and that’s why it’s on this list of top 2021 trends to watch. Coal-powered plants are closing or being reconfigured for natural gas. Wind and solar account for growing portions of America’s electric generation. Utility-scale battery storage is being implemented. New forms of energy generation such as hydrogen and fusion power are being tested. A Biden administration is likely to reverse, by executive order, many environmentally unfriendly policies, beginning with rejoining the Paris Agreement. 

While all of that is exciting, many are watching what is happening with automobiles and trucks, which account for a large portion of the world’s carbon emissions. California, along with a growing list of countries, cities and provinces has banned the sale of new combustion engines by 2035. And competition is coming to the world of battery electric cars. No longer is it just Tesla. For model year 2021, major automakers will introduce more than 20 all-electric cars and trucks. Within the next few years, watch for the introduction of all-electric Ford F Series trucks – when that happens, it’s game over. 

Action: Many organizations are dedicated to reducing their carbon footprint. Now is the time to do a reality check on those goals and re-evaluate the contributions your organization is making to reduce global warming.   

Legal Weed – The recreational use of weed is becoming so accepted that it may not be “cool” anymore. With the additional of four more states whose voters, in the 2020 election opted to legalize it (Arizona, New Jersey, South Dakota, and Montana), 15 states now allow the recreational use of weed, according to Esquire(Nov. 4, 2020) a trend that is likely to continue over the next several election cycles with New York, Florida and Ohio next likely to legalize it. 

Action: Internal communicators will need to work with their HR counterparts to communicate an organization’s policies regarding recreational marijuana use and its impact on workplace expectations (particularly when many Americans will continue to work at home).

Socially Conscious Consumers – According to a Kanter Monitor report, as reported on June 11, 2020 by Marketing Dive, 68 percent of Americans expect brands to be clear about their values. That number rises even more based on a consumer’s identity [for example, by race, sexual identity (LGBTQ) and generation (Millennials, Gen Z)]. As the U.S. government makes the transitions to the Biden-Harris Administration, a number of executive orders, policy decisions, and new laws will force Americans and American businesses to re-evaluate their stands on key issues such as climate change and racial/gender equality.

Action: All organizations should be having internal discussions about where their organization stands on issues involving systemic racism, gender equality, sexual equality, ageism, diversity, climate change, etc. We’re now at the point where organizations are being measured not on what they say, but what they do.

Returning to Work — Nearly two-thirds of U.S. workers who have been working remotely during the pandemic would like to continue to do so, according to a Gallup Poll conducted in mid-September 2020. Breaking the 9-5 office paradigm will be difficult for many business leaders, but for many workers, a new paradigm is already here – a hybrid model where they can work from anywhere, but also be able to work from an office when they need to. This doesn’t come without consequences; imagine all of the workers whose jobs depend upon people commuting and working from an office – transportation workers, restaurant employees, cleaning and maintenance professionals. 

Action: Corporate and internal public relations professionals need to team up with HR to rethink an organization’s policies toward the workplace. If the organization strongly believes that all employees should be in the office, you’ll need to consider communications to re-sell employees on the benefits of working face-to-face in a central location.

Gender Equity – When the new school year started last fall, four times more women than men dropped out of the workforce as the Covid-19 pandemic raged on. According to McKinsey & Co.’s annual “Women in the Workplace” study, published in September, one in four women are considering reducing work hours, moving to part-time roles, switching to less demanding jobs, taking leaves of absence from work, or stepping away from the workforce altogether. Like the nation’s racism problem, COVID-19 has laid bare the persistent inequality between men and women in the workforce (as well as who is shouldering the work at home – caring for kids and keeping them engaged in distance learning).

Action: Corporate communicators need to lead on gender equity and racism in the workplace. Work with other department heads to conduct an audit of where your organization is today, and where it needs to go, to meet the needs of employees who are women and people of color.

It’s Always Been About a Conversation – Marketing and sales have always been about conversations. It’s just that now, with sales automation and online marketing, we’re able to create real-time feedback loops that help an organization move a customer through the sales funnel faster. A relevant example of this is when you’re on a brand’s website reading about a product or watching a video, and a box pops up offering a live chat (or even a phone call) with a representative of the company to answer your questions. 

Action: In a pandemic, conversations have never been more important between a brand and its customers. In developing content (blogs, social posts, white papers, articles, videos, podcasts, etc.), consider how your content should further the conversation between and brand and the customer, and at what point you may want to conduct a live engagement event.

New Shopping Reality – Even before COVID-19, shopping was changing dramatically. When the pandemic hit and persisted, those dynamics accelerated. A number of iconic brands (J.C. Penney, Brooks Brothers, Chuck E. Cheese, Pier 1), already fighting the likes of Amazon, Walmart, Target and Costco, declared bankruptcy. At the same time, new shopping experiences are emerging – for example, having meals delivered to your door, subscribing to apps to help you get healthy (instead of going to the gym), and having cars delivered to your home for test drives. The future will involve more online shopping, more outside pick-up, more take-out, and more local delivery as consumers decide that there are better ways of spending their time.

Action: Traditional ways of selling are changing dramatically. Communicators should work closely with Marketing and Sales to explore new ways of delivering products and services right to a customer’s door.

The Bottom Line — Scanning the news and watching trends is critical to seeing around corners and anticipating future events and what their impact may be on your organization or your career. As public relations (PR) professionals, these are the times where our expertise is needed more than ever. It’s in times like these that we shine, as we help organizational leaders effectively communicate visions of preferred futures as they wrestle with present-day challenges. 

Stephen Dupont, APR, is vice president of public relations and branded content with the Minneapolis creative firm Pocket Hercules (pockethercules.com). Dupont writes and speaks frequently about futures mindset and foresight. To learn more about Dupont, visit his blog, stephendupont.co. 

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22 Questions to Ask Your Brand, Your Organization and Your Leaders

By Stephen Dupont, APR

Do you feel your brand is called to a higher purpose?

Do you know where your brand stands on important issues of the day?

How worried is your brand at upsetting your customer base?

When faced with hot-button cultural, environmental, political or social issues, many brands choose to remain neutral – or even silent. 

But in today’s competitive landscape, some brands are leaning into their purpose and taking public stances on not just industry issues, but politically charged issues.

And, in the face of a seismic event, they’re willing to face into the headwinds and do the right thing, profits be damned, because what matters most is people – they’re people, their vendors, their customers, and their neighbors.

For those that do, the reason is simple — according to management consulting firm Accenture, 63 percent of American consumers prefer to purchase products and services from purpose-driven companies. 

However, the real question may be: “Can a brand afford not to be purpose driven?” A study by Kantar Consulting, as reported in Marketing Dive, found that “brands with a high sense of purpose have experienced a brand valuation increase of 175 percent over the past 12 years compared to the median growth rate of 86 percent.” 

People in marketing and communications have a desire to find purpose in work and in the brand experiences we offer customers and other stakeholders. However, when it comes to brands and their brand owners (companies, nonprofits, government agencies, and public institutions such as universities and hospitals), when the word “purpose” is raised we usually try to satisfy it through such activities as donations, community affairs programs or employee volunteer opportunities. 

Being a good corporate citizen and doing good things, such as donating to a cause, is not the same as building a purpose-driven brand. 

Brands, at their most basic, enable a brand owner to communicate the identity and a unique reason why a consumer should buy a product or service, or support a cause or candidate. 

In a way, understanding and supporting the purpose of a brand is similar to trusting a consumer brand’s experience. Consumers who trust a brand through an experience consistently delivered are loyal to that brand. For example, when you see the Golden Arches while driving, you know that if you pull over for a Big Mac and fries you can expect just about the same quality at any McDonald’s restaurant in the U.S. 

A consistently delivered product that consumers trust is the first and most crucial step toward purpose. Because if a business can’t satisfy its customers with a quality product or service, it won’t be in business long enough to express its greater purpose.

Can brands, therefore, have a higher purpose? Most definitely, and it occurs in an experience where the brand owner and the consumer transcend the simple purchasing transaction to transform thinking and lives.

To get to this higher expression of the brand, the brand owner must intentionally seek to embrace a mindset that embraces purpose. And to get there, an organization’s leaders, including its communications professionals, must begin a dialogue where you’re open to asking some tough questions, such as the following:

1. Why did we get into this in the first place?

If your organization has been around for some time, its employees may have forgotten why the founder started the organization in the first place. What glaring need or problem did the founder risk time and treasure to solve? It’s often refreshing to go back into history to learn about the founder’s original “why.”

2. Do we really live up to our mission, vision and values?

Many organizations post carefully worded mission, vision and value statements on their websites or in their employee manuals. But when was the last time your company’s leadership team really took a hard look at those statements and asked themselves if the brand was living up to its promises? 

When your organization was confronted by a seismic event – a major earthquake, a category 4 hurricane, or the Covid-19 pandemic – did your organization live up to its mission and values when everything was at its worst?

3. Are we willing to be courageous? To act boldly, when others are afraid or refuse?

It’s one thing to act boldly when the pressure is on; when all eyes are on your organization. It’s another to take a step forward and risk your organization’s reputation and turn off customers when you don’t need to. Nike’s 2018 “Just Do It” spot narrated by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is a good example of this. The company didn’t need to invite controversy to its brand; instead, it allowed it to better define it.

4. Is our purpose separate from how we operate our organization day-to-day, or is it integrated into everything we do?

Some organizations separate purpose and doing good from the core activities (operations, manufacturing, finance, service and sales) of their organization, while others embed purpose into the very fiber of everything they do. While your end customer may not know the difference, the ambassadors of your organization, your employees, will, and that will be reflected in how they interact with stakeholders who have a say in your organization’s success.

5. Are we clear about what we stand for – and what we don’t?

Has your organization’s leadership team (or board) actually talked through where it stands on important issues of the day – issues that may affect your company, such as gun violence, tariffs, sexual harassment, political conversations in the workplace, artificial intelligence, or income inequality? You may not need to express to the outside world where your brand stands on these issues, but you should take the time to reflect upon them and determine where it’s appropriate to add your voice, and where it’s not.

6. Are we willing to take a stand on a difficult issue?

According to a 2018 Accenture study, 62 percent of consumers want companies to take a stand on social, cultural, environmental and political issues that consumers care about (MarketingDive, Dec. 6, 2018). When the Minnesota Legislature voted to put on the ballot a referendum outlawing gay marriage, Minnesota’s leading companies, including Target, 3M and General Mills, stated publicly their opposition to the proposal. Many companies try to stay neutral to avoid upsetting customers. But if you know your customers well, like Chick-fi-la or Nike, you can take a public stand regardless of possible consumer backlash.

According to a 2018 Cone/Porter Novelli study on purpose-driven companies, the top ten issues that companies need to consider include:

1. Privacy and internet security 
2. Domestic job growth
3. Access to healthcare
4. Sexual harassment
5. Racial equality
6. Women’s rights
7. Cost of higher education
8. Immigration
9. Climate change
10. Gun control

7. Will being a purpose-driven company help us build employee and customer loyalty?

As any marketing-driven company knows, the costs associated with obtaining a new customer or recruiting a new employee can be very expensive. Maintaining and increasing loyalty to ensure repeat purchases, therefore, is critical to reducing long-term marketing costs. At the heart of building a brand experience is the emotional connection between the brand owner and the customer. According to a Cone/Porter Novelli study on purpose-driven companies, 77 percent of Americans “say they feel a stronger emotional connection to purpose-driven companies” and 79percent “say they would be more loyal to a purpose-driven company.”

8. Will taking a stand actually improve our bottom line?

When, following the Parkland school shooting massacre, Dick’s Sporting Goods announced that it was going to remove assault-style guns from its stores and raise the age to purchase guns to 21, the move was met with howls of protest from gun owners. Not only that, but the company went on to destroy $5 million worth of assault-style guns. The result: Sales did not go down. They went up. Gun owners who expressed their opposition were outweighed by customers who shared the company’s purpose.

9. Are our competitors building purpose-driven brands?

Look closely at the competitive brands in your industry category. Which companies are building purpose-driven brands, and which are not? Why, you ask? Because according to a 2018 Cone/Porter Novelli study about purpose, 66 percent of American consumers said they would switch from a product they typically buy to a new product from a purpose-driven company, and 57 percent said they would pay more for that product.”

10. Do the words and actions of our organization’s leaders reflect the values of our brand?

In today’s CEO-as-celebrity world, the actual words and actions of your organization’s top leaders matter more than ever. Missteps caught on video are amplified through social media. Recordings made years earlier can come back to haunt. Like their brands, the leaders behind those brands need to aim true, stay authentic, and be consistent. When was the last time your organization’s top leaders spent a day really talking and thinking about the brand experience and their personal role in supporting it?

11. Are our customers willing to stand up for us when we take a hit? 

Eventually your brand will encounter a crisis. All brands do. But what distinguishes purpose-driven brands from those that are not is the willingness of customers to speak up for a brand. According to a Cone/Porter Novelli study, if a purpose-driven brand is spoken of negatively, 73 percent of consumers are willing to stand up for that brand.

12. How willing are our employees and customers to forgive us if we make a mistake?

The Cone/Porter Novelli study also found that 67 percent of American consumers would be more willing to forgive a purpose-driven company if that company makes a misstep.

13. In promoting our brand, do we connect the humans who work for the brand (employees) with the humans who use the brand (customers)?

Purpose-driven brands are authentic brands, and authenticity starts with the mindset that the brand is not B2B or B2C, but rather, H2H (human to human), as noted by marketing consultant Bryan Kramer in his book, Human to Human: H2H. If you want a purpose-driven brand, don’t be afraid to ask your customers — investors, employees, vendors and community leaders — for their honest feedback on how you’re doing. Seek to create a dialogue and more importantly, relationships. Real, human relationships. Take the feedback, learn from it, and intentionally seek to think higher and act more boldly.

14. Do our brand’s values align with the values of our customers and employees?

When the values of an organization don’t align with its employees or customers, friction occurs, according to branding expert Karl D. Speak, co-author of Be Your Own Brand. Most organizations only go to the effort of defining its brand while overlooking how its employees, customers and other stakeholders define their brands. But when you connect all three, as with Patagonia or REI, magic happens.

15. How do our customers, employees, vendors, investors and community leaders describe our brand when we’re not around?

Words matter. Perceptions matter. Use a third-party service (for example, a branding or market research firm) to learn how your stakeholders describe your organization and its brand experience. Do those words match what you want people to say about your brand? The lesson here is don’t assume that you know what your customers, employees and other stakeholders are actually thinking and saying about your brand.

16. Should we consider becoming a B corporation? 

Certified B corporations are a new kind of business that balances purpose and profit. They are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on their stakeholders as well as the environment. Well-known B corporations include Ben & Jerry’s, Hootsuite, Stonyfield Organic, New Belgium Brewing and Allbirds, among others. Do you need to be a B corporation to lead with purpose? No. But making a commitment through a third-party and sticking with it, says a lot. To learn how to become a certified B corporation, visit bcorporation.net/certification.

17. Is our brand having a positive impact on the world beyond the sale of our product or service, the employment of our people, or the returns earned by our investors?

In working with a company that makes refrigeration units on a brand manifesto, I saw a bigger purpose – a company that helps keep medicine and food at exactly the right temperature to ensure not only its quality, but its safety. Likewise, for a manufacturer of work and hunting boots, we recognized that delivering comfort takes on more relevance when the user is building a home for a family who will call it “their home” one day. Look beyond the obvious to how people or our planet are being helped by your presence.

18. Are the parts, ingredients or supplies we use to make our product or deliver our service environmentally friendly and ethically manufactured?

More specifically, could your brand eliminate excessive packaging? Could it change to a different vendor that treats or pays its employees better than your previous vendor? Could you find a local source rather than order your parts from China? In a growing number of industries, third parties offer certifications and other honors to recognize organizations that are trying to make a difference in terms of diversity, the environment, workplace culture, etc. For example, golf courses that are striving to implement green practices seek out the a certification from the Audubon Society.

19. Are we willing to say we’re sorry when we’re wrong?

Saying sorry is difficult for most business leaders. Remember, it’s people who own and nurture brands. And, people make mistakes. If you make a mistake or hurt someone, go back to step 1 – to your values, and ask yourself, “Are we as an organization, willing to make things right? Are we willing to acknowledge that we made a mistake, rather than hide behind our defense counsel?”

20. Are we willing to measure whether our brand is living up to its purpose? 

Purpose can be measured in a number of ways, from formal studies (awareness, perceptions, Net Promoter, etc.) to how your brand’s fans speak up for the brand online – through reviews, social media posts – or how they show up (at retail, at an event, or to work on the factory floor, etc.). If you take great pains to create a purpose-driven brand, make sure to measure how you’re doing to reinforce your good intentions.

21. Does our board of directors include members who are women, people of color, and LGBTQ?

What is the purpose of a board? It’s not to run the day-to-day of the business. Rather, it is to ask the CEO and the rest of the leadership team tough questions. If you want the same questions, you bring on people who look and act the same. But if you want your organization to see things from different perspectives so it’s not blindsided when an issue arises, you intentionally seek out diversity to strengthen it. Diversity of thought, of heritage, of ethnicity, of philosophy, and of creed is at the heart of the American Experiment. It’s what makes our culture, our democracy and our economy the most envied on the planet. 

22. What part do we want in the future?

The brand owner controls the future of your brand story. You, the communications or marketing professional, are the brand owner. How do you want that story to read – five, ten or 20 years from now? Did you sit back and do nothing when you could have changed the world, or did you act boldly to transform the abundance of the world to make it a better place? Having a purpose-driven brand is an intentional choice. Small deliberate choices made over time compound to build a bigger story. Just remember, in the words of the band Rush, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”

The Bottom Line: Being Purpose Driven Requires Vision and Intent

Building a purpose-driven brand takes investment and time over the long run to create a brand that employees and consumers recognize for its purpose. More importantly, it takes vision and a change in mindset where everyone within an organization are focused on delivering an incredible brand experience with the intent of making higher profit margins and making a difference in the world. It’s a mindset where measuring the impact of your purpose takes on greater weight than meeting the expectations of Wall Street analysts. 

Stephen Dupont, APR, is vice president of public relations and branded content for Minneapolis creative firm Pocket Hercules. Email him at Stephen.dupont@pockethercules.com or visit his blog, stephendupont.co. Dupont is a frequent contributor to PRSA’s Strategies & Tactics magazine.

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By Stephen Dupont, APR

Do you know anyone under the age of 9? 

If you do, you’re staring at the face of the world’s next generation: Alpha Generation, the generation that comes after Generation Z. 

Born between 2010 and 2025, Alpha Generation, the children of the Millennials and Generation Z, are beginning to emerge as consumers as the first of their generation enters middle school. 

Preceding generations were defined by seminal events. 9/11, for example, defined Millennials. The Great Recession defined Generation Z. Although such an event has yet to define Alpha Generation, it’s plainly clear that, from the moment members of this generation are born, they will be known, at least for now, by their immersion in all things technology. 

For marketers and communicators, understanding that immersion is crucial to connecting with Alpha Generation as this next generation begins to flex it’s monetary power in the years to  come. 

Who Alpha Generation Is

Worldwide, Alpha Generation will be one of the smallest generations, based on birthrate, compared with previous generations. While the world’s population will grow by 1.2 billion from 2010 to 2025 to 8.1 billion, parents worldwide are having fewer children. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the U.S. birthrate in 2018 reached its lowest level in 32 years. This means there will be fewer Alphas to care for, or support, older generations (e.g., healthcare, social security, etc.). In many societies across the globe, Alphas will be entering a world punctuated by graying members of the Baby Boom and Generation X generations.

According to Jonathan Vespa, a demographer with the U.S. Census Bureau, Alpha Generation will be the most racially diverse generation ever in the United States. By 2020, less than one half (49.8%) of children in the U.S. are projected to be non-Hispanic whites. Alphas are also likely to be raised in non-traditional households (single parents, parents not married, same-sex parents, mixed-race parents). By 2035, 35 percent of the U.S. population will not be affiliated with an organized religion, predicts Allen Downey, a professor of computer science with Olin College.

Alpha Generation worldwide will likely consist of immigrants in the decades to come as people flee their homelands due to decaying political situations, climate change (for example, rising sea levels or cities running out of water), or lack of economic opportunity. The United Nations estimates that more than 200 million people will be forced to migrate because of climate change by 2050, alone.

How Alphas Will Be Different

What makes Alphas different from their Millennial or Gen Z parents, or their Gen X and Boomer grandparents, is their immersion, from birth, in the digital world. Alphas are viewing digital media sooner in their lives than previous generations. Just look at the ChuChu TV channel on YouTube, notes writer Alexis C. Madrigal in The Atlantic article, “Raised by YouTube,” with its more than 19 billion views. Alphas are using mobile devices earlier, and they’re fluid in connecting with their peers and family members through a variety of online platforms, such as FaceTime, Fortnite, Skype or Zoom.

As technology advances and smart devices become commonplace in our homes and offices, Alphas will leave the longest trail of data ever collected about a generation. Through technologies ranging from social media to smart sensors, manufacturers and tech companies will be able to see how Alphas interact with their brands, from cradle to grave. 

Because of their exposure and interaction with the Internet, Alphas are likely to be the first generation to maintain avatars in virtual worlds where they will go for entertainment as well as school and work (e.g., the Oasis from the sci-fi novel Ready Player One).

They’re also likely to have more influence than previous generations in adult decisions and big family purchases, such as eating out, expensive trips and other entertainment activities, because they will be adept at searching for information and sharing it with their parents. 

What the impact of this constant exposure to technology from an early age will be in the years to come is difficult to forecast, however, Sherry Turkle, professor of Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and author of the New York Times bestseller Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, claims mobile technology is already profoundly changing the way people converse with, and interact with, each other in face-to-face situations and large social settings. 

Communicating and Marketing to Alpha Generation

So how should public relations professionals and marketers consider connecting with Alpha Generation as they become consumers, voters and donors in the years to come? Here are some suggestions, based on the insight of more than a dozen futurists and experts in politics, real estate, child psychology, and marketing:

• Generation Defining Event(s). Every generation is shaped by a seminal event(s) that defines their generation. It’s not clear yet what that event will be for Alphas, but it could be a significant event most likely within the next 10-15 years. Based on history, such an event will be remembered in strong emotional terms. What could that event be? A major war? A global economic meltdown? The first human to step foot on Mars? A major weather or geological event such as a super storm or an earthquake unlike what we’ve seen before? Marketers and communicators need to be cognizant of major and minor events that will shape this generation and be able to put those event(s) into the context of the messages they’re delivering. 

• Adaptability. There may be no generation that will need to adopt to change more than Alphas. As they reach adulthood, they enter a world facing seismic shifts – massive weather events caused by climate change, artificial intelligence, robots in the workplace, driverless vehicles, mainstream digital currencies, China as a world superpower, every- day virtual reality, and much more. Appealing to their mindset of uncertainty and flexibility will be key in generating relevant content and messaging.

• Going Mobile. According to a 2017 Common Sense Media report, 42 percent of children 8 or younger have their own mobile devices and spent an average of two hours and 19 minutes a day with screen media. The delivery of communications and marketing messages via mobile will increasingly take up a larger share of future PR and ad budgets. The time to think in terms of a mobile experience is now.

• Generation YouTubers. Where previous generations dreamed of being astronauts or  professional athletes, nearly 30 percent of respondents to  a 2019 survey by LEGO of more than 3,000 children, ages 8 to 12, in the United States, the United Kingdome and China said they wanted to be a Vlogger or YouTuber when they grow up. While not all will fulfill that dream, connecting with Alphas with video stories will be critical to your organization’s future success, as well as allowing them to generate content for your brand.

• What’s your brand’s voice? Alpha Generation is growing up asking for information from Siri, Alexa, Echo and other virtual assistants via phones, voice-activated speakers and in-home robot personal assistants. By 2020, according to comScore, 50 percent of all searches will be such voice searches. As this becomes normal and part of the day-to-day routine for Alphas, organizations will need to think about how their brands are experienced in a voice search world.

• Snapchat is for old people. Whether it’s Fortnite, Tik-Tok or some other social media platform, it’s likely that Alpha Generation will gravitate to a new social media platform to avoid their Millennial and Gen Z parents’ prying eyes. That means Instagram and Snapchat will become shunned by Alphas just like how Facebook is avoided by Gen Z today.  Be prepared to learn how to communicate through yet another new social media platforms.

• Trust will be more important than ever. In a world where Deep Fakes and Fake News are becoming “normal,” and where virtual and augmented reality are becoming part of day-to-day reality, Alphas will demand more transparency from their institutions, according to Gen Z consultant Tiffany Zhong, “Transparency will become the gold standard when it comes to marketing to future generations.” 

Not Just Another Bunch of Millennials or Gen Zers

Don’t make the mistake of thinking of Alpha Gen as an extension of Gen Z or the Millennials. Considering the incredible amount of change they may experience in the years to come, Alpha Gen may have more in common with the Greatest Generation (Great Depression, World War II, introduction of TV, the Cold War) than their parents. Savvy marketers and communicators will watch closely and listen carefully to learn how to offer relevant, authentic messages that emotionally connect with Alphas.

Futurist Mindset: Thinking about Alpha Gen and generations after that, takes a futurist mindset. To learn more about how to develop a futurist mindset, check out this article.

Also, to learn more about Gen Z, check out this previous article I wrote back in 2015.

Stephen Dupont, APR, is VP of Public Relations and Branded Content for Pocket Hercules (www.pockethercules.com), a brand creative firm based in Minneapolis. He blogs at www.stephendupont.co. Contact him at stephen.dupont@pockethercules.com.

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By Stephen Dupont, APR

You’re searching online for a nice restaurant to which to take your fiancee and fiancee’s parents for a very important meal.  Many anxious thoughts race through your mind that, when all combined, can be summed up as: “Don’t mess this up!” 

Or, you’re planning the family vacation – let’s say a Colorado ski trip. You’re excited to go, but sorting for hours through all of the options and comparing prices – airlines, car rental, hotel, lift tickets, restaurants – your brain goes numb, and in the process, you might become very grumpy.

Recognize yourself in either of those situations? Do you recall feeling anxiousness or frustration, and feeling like you just wanted to reach a decision so you could feel some sort of relief? Or, do you recall feeling the emotional, financial or physical pain associated with an event such as a divorce, a job loss, or an injury?

According to Google, 3.5 billion searches are conducted each day on its platform – 40,000 search inquiries every minute. I would venture to say, that whether you’re searching for an answer to finish up some homework, you’re looking for side hustle secrets to make extra money, or you want to know how to treat a hangnail, many searches, even those that start out with a pleasant goal in mind, such as taking a trip to Disney World with the family, are related to a pain point. 

For marketers and communicators, pain points are the gateway to introducing a customer to your company’s unique brand promise and experience. And for those organizations that practice building personas (or profiles of highly qualified customers), pain points are an essential element to crafting brand messages.

Pain points aren’t just important to marketing products and services. 

Helping solve a person’s pain points also can be applied to seeking donations to support a good cause, or voting for or against a political candidate or referendum.

For example, professional fundraisers may appeal to a wealthy donor’s sense of leaving a legacy. Behind that legacy might be pain points such as the grief of having lost a child or spouse to a disease such as cancer, feeling indebted to an institution for all it had given to an individual, or the fear of death and desire to be immortalized by having a structure named after them.

For the most part, consumer pain points can be boiled down to basically five categories:

• Money (make more money, pay down debts, arguments with spouse)
• Health/Aging (weight gain, loss of muscle strength, balding, ED, fear of death)
• Relationships (not meeting the right someone, divorce)
• Work (career advancement, layoff, retirement)
• Existential/Spiritual (feeling a sense of purpose or calling)

From a business-to-business perspective, pain points typically revolve around:

• Attracting and retaining customers and employees
• Attracting capital for future investment or to pay down debt
• Cutting costs/increasing profits
• Increasing productivity
• Reducing waste
• Enhancing reputation
• Increasing market share

The key for you the marketer or communicator is to understand exactly what a customer’s pain points are and how motivated a customer is to solving their problem. Then, positioning your brand as the most trusted, reliable and proven solution to remedy the customer’s pain. 

Customer Acupuncture

So how can you pinpoint a customer’s pain points?

If a customer enters a store to rent a truck to move some furniture from one home to another, the pain point isn’t the moving of the furniture, although that in of itself can be frustrating. Instead, the pain point is what is necessitating the move. For example:

• A death in the family, 
• A couple splitting up, 
• Parents moving an adult child into an apartment for the first time, 
• The sale of a home, or 
• A job transfer that requires a move from one city to another.

Each one of these situations comes with it’s own spectrum of emotions. Some people will be happy, others will be angry, and still others may be sad or grieving. Some people may feel a range of emotions. The amount of pain they feel and their desire to feel relief from that pain is connected to these emotions and can be accelerated by how easy – or frustrating – their experience with your brand is.

The marketer, communicator and sales associate need to understand why a customer needs a truck and then, develop a solution that not only solves the problem, but addresses the emotions that a customer may be experiencing.

This entire experience – from searching online for information, to visiting an organization’s website, to seeking references from trusted sources or consulting reviews, to entering a retail location or placing an order online — is broadly defined as the “brand experience.” 

To create a connection that lasts beyond the first brand experience, marketers and communicators must speak and act in such as way that the customer feels understood. This is why it’s so important for marketers, communicators and salespeople to understand the context of a customer’s pain, and speak authentically to it by using language and visual references that a customer uses on an everyday basis.

This is the first step toward gaining the trust of a customer, and ultimately, to obtain a sale, donation or vote.

Looking for Pain

So, where can you look to discover a customer’s pain points or to better understand the depth of pain points that you are already aware of?  

Below is a list of sources to consider. In terms of process, I suggest: 

1. Observe first through existing channels or sources, and then, 

2.) Ask more questions to gain a better understanding based on what you’ve observed. 

For example, if your organization chooses to conduct a customer group, wouldn’t it be more efficacious to listen first to calls coming into your company’s customer service hotline to frame up potential questions for the focus group?

By observing and asking, you can take the guesswork out of understanding a customer’s pain and instead, develop an early-warning system. Such a system is designed to document pain points to provide decision makers the information needed to make better decisions about product innovation, branding messages, and marketing spend.

Keep this in mind: In most cases, customers and potential customers are already telling you what their pain points are. You just have to decide whether you want to listen. With the internet and social media, for the most part, it’s all there, just waiting to be mined by the curious marketer or communicator.

1. Customer Service Calls and Emails: The first question that all brands need to ask themselves is: “Are wethe pain point?” How would you know? Take a day to listen to customers calling your customer service 800 number, monitor a live chat between a customer and your company’s call center, or review emails coming into your company via its website. What is that experience like?  Do your customer service people really listen? Do they put customers on hold? Do they provide accurate information?  

Listening to real customers helps build empathy throughout your marketing communications organization and offers a checklist of action steps that you can take to improve your product or service. Keep in mind, for every customer who contacts your company, there may be a dozen who don’t bother but, instead, vent their pain in public through an online forum, or worse yet, simply give up on your brand and contact your competition.  

2. Survey Your Sales Organization: Consult with your sales team or organization to learn what they’ve been hearing firsthand from current and prospective customers. Consider surveying them first – to obtain written input about customer pain points – and then host small group discussions at an event, such as a national sales meeting with a third-party moderator. 

3. Online Forums: Many people seek out online forums to get detailed information about a specific interest, hobby or passion. For example, if you enjoy walleye fishing, there’s an online forum called Walleye Central where anglers share information about fishing techniques, lures, boats, locations, trips, etc. It’s not uncommon to find members asking each other for their opinions on different products, or to seek out information from other members about how to fix a problem with a product or service.

4. Social Media Groups: Similar to online forums, you also can join groups on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, where members share information about an industry or a specific interest. Other online sources where groups of people converge around specific topics or passions include Quora and Reddit.

5. Google Search: Google Search phrases are an indicator about what’s on the minds of customers. Type in a phrase such as “problem with bed mattress” in the Google Search bar. After your search citations appear, scroll down to the very bottom of the page to Related Searches. For this particular search, the following phrases resulted:

• old mattress health problems
• bad mattress symptoms
• bad mattress back pain
• can a bad mattress cause knee pain
• can a bad mattress cause body aches
• sleeping on wrong side of mattress
• bad mattress cause chest pain
• bad mattress hip pain

These phrases are based on searches that other people have made on Google, offering clues about other potential pain points. 

6. Google Trends: If you’d like to find out what the world is searching for through Google, go to Google Trends and type in different pain point phrases. You can do a comparison of your first phrase to other pain point phrases. For example, if you handle marketing or communications for a financial services company, you might want to test phrases such as: money problems, job loss, health insurance.

7. Customer Interviews: To understand customer pain points firsthand, pick up the phone and engage in a live conversation with a group of customers or stakeholders (employees, vendors, investors, etc.). Of course, don’t call “blind.” Design a survey that digs into the pain points that current, potential or former customers are trying to solve by buying your product or competitive products or services. Better yet, hire a firm to do these types of interviews. Some customers will hold back in talking directly with a representative of the company but often are less reluctant to speak with someone outside of the company.

8. Focus Groups: Focus groups can be helpful in allowing you not only to hear but see customers talk about pain points. However, focus groups can be expensive, and one or two people can dominate the conversation during a session, leading to “groupthink.” 

9. Online Surveys: Using an Omnibus survey conducted by a national online survey organization such as Harris, Ipsos, or Gallup can allow companies to gather insights from a broad cross section of the United States. Typically, you’ll receive 2,000 or more responses per question, which provides the credibility needed to understand how widespread a particular pain point is being experienced. Another source of online surveys is LinkedIn. 

10. Magazine/Website and Association Surveys: Often times, media organizations as well as member associations will conduct periodic surveys of their readers or members to learn more about their concerns to plan editorial and programs. These survey results often address concerns or issues that your organization can use to better understand customer pain points.

11. Online Product Reviews: Look for customer reviews about leading products or services within a category. In their reviews, customers often share how a particular product or service either did or did not solve a pain point. Reviews offer an opportunity to scout a competitive product.

12. Mystery Shopping: You can either send some people from your company to do this, or hire an outside service. Go to retailers that sell your product or service and find out how you’re treated, just like any other customer. Mystery shopping allows you to test perceived pain points to see how sales associates engage a customer and attempt to solve the pain point.

13. Social Media Ads: If you already have a good idea about what a customer’s potential pain points are, test them out with social media ads or Google Adwords to find out which pain points resonate more with you audience than others. This will help prioritize future messaging and media spending.

14. Sweepstakes: Conduct a sweepstakes where you invite potential customers to write a short essay or share a photo or video that can give you insight about their pain points. In exchange, you enter these customers into a drawing for a prize. For example, for a hand cream company, we conducted an online contest in search for America’s hardest working hands and feet. We received more than 1,000 essays. More importantly, the contest helped broaden our vision as to exactly who uses hand creams. We expected responses from nurses and construction workers. We were shocked to receive entries from morticians, ranchers, butchers, horse trainers, and more than 60 other occupations.

The Bottom Line on Pain Points

The brand experience is a journey. 

Often it begins with a life change – graduation from college, a first job, a new job, a new relationship, marriage, divorce, birth of a new child, the purchase of a new home, or a death in the family. 

In other cases, the journey begins with the desire to learn something new or try a new activity – downhill skiing, cycling, fishing, hunting, knitting or golfing – or the desire to get involved, such as raising money for your kid’s school or volunteering to elect a political candidate. 

Wherever the journey starts, there may be pain involved. Even when there may be joy, such as a wedding or planning a trip of a lifetime, unforeseen factors can cause pain. 

What separates great brands from good brands is their understanding of pain in emotional terms, and their ability to create a brand experience in which the customer feels not only listened to, but understood.

Stephen Dupont, APR, is VP of Public Relations and Branded Content for Pocket Hercules (www.pockethercules.com), a creative branding powerhouse based in Minneapolis.  Contact Stephen Dupont (@stephendupont) at stephen.dupont@pockethercules.com.

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By Stephen Dupont, APR

From nearly the first day a student enters college or university, he or she will be pummeled with an unmistakable message from educators over the next four years: “Get an internship.” 

Of course, they’re right: a student who has had an internship experience has a better chance of achieving employment following college than a person who hasn’t, simply because the student has already acquired work experience in their field of study.

But there’s more to internships than meets the eye. Internships offer a profound learning experience — not only for the student, but also for the individual who manages and mentors the intern. 

Over my career, I’ve probably hosted a couple dozen interns. Through these experiences, I’ve come to realize that internships can hold transformational moments that can help a young person make critical career decisions in the years ahead. 

In other words, internships can have an effect that ripples over years, maybe decades. 

Throughout my career, I have made an effort to hire interns as part of “giving back” to my profession. Hosting an intern not only makes me feel better about myself as a professional, but can serve as an opportunity to learn something new about myself in the process, or learn new skills. For example, recently, one of my Gen Z interns showed me how to more efficiently navigate a specific social media platform.

My enthusiasm for internships stems from my own experience. I interned for my hometown newspaper, the Prior Lake, Minn., American, where I put journalism theories I was learning at the University of St. Thomas into real-life practice. I also interned in the public relations group of the Minneapolis office of Bozell & Jacobs Advertising, where I learned about creativity and how to serve clients. Both internships had a profound impact on the decisions I eventually made in my career. 

So how can you leverage the power of an internship? Consider these tips:

Low-cost labor or an extension of your brand? Some companies look at interns as low-cost labor. I look at interns as a powerful opportunity to extend my company’s brand into college campuses. Students want to work with cool companies. If they share positive experiences about your company with their fellow classmates, it’s an opportunity for your company to earn some cool factor on it. You won’t get that by mistreating your interns or giving them mundane or meaningless work.

Be straightforward. Don’t tease or lead on your interns. I make it crystal clear that the internship is, first and foremost, a learning experience. This is especially important if you hire a college senior who is anxious about employment following graduation. 

Consider hiring high school students, and college freshmen and sophomores. Some companies use internships to test out talent. I use internships as an opportunity to give a student a leg up. I know an internship with our organization will be an invaluable experience that will lead to more opportunities. That’s why I like to hire students earlier in their college experience with the intent that our internship will help them attract future internships in the following years. I once hired a very motivated student for a summer internship who had just graduated from high school. Today she’s a senior communications director for a tech company in Silicon Valley after having worked in Washington D.C. for a number of years.

Writing, writing, and more writing. I strongly believe writing is a reflection of your thinking and that the best thing you can do for an intern is to give him or her as many opportunities to write – reports, articles, memos, emails, banner ads, headlines, plans, outlines, white papers, presentations, etc. Through writing, your interns learn to interview people, ask questions, focus their thoughts, edit, re-write, proofread, and see their drafts transformed into a final work product. I always tell my interns: When you turn an assignment in to me, think of me as the client — only give me your very best work, and use all the tools available to you, such as Spell Check or having others review your work before you turn it into me.

Eliminate dead water. Pro anglers use a term called “dead water.” In preparing for a fishing tournament, pro anglers learn which parts of a lake have the fish (where they should fish during the tournament), and which areas have few or no fish (dead water). As I tell my interns, the point of your internship is to learn what you like about a specific profession, as well as what you don’t like, and to use that information to make future career decisions. If you’re managing or mentoring an intern, I challenge you to offer a variety of experiences to help an intern to better understand this and eliminate the “dead water.”

Develop a career plan. One of the best things you can offer an intern is career planning. With my interns, we rewrite resumes, create LinkedIn pages, arrange informational interviews with other professionals I know, and discuss future career plans. More importantly, work with your intern to help the student discover their “Why” – why they want to pursue a particular profession and why it matters to living a purpose-driving life. Through this process, you may discover some things about your own career that may surprise you, such as a desire to teach or pursuing a specific path within your profession. 

Develop lifetime habits. Because many interns have never worked in an office setting, help them develop good business habits, from how to dress appropriately for a workplace and showing up on time to the office each day to always being ready to capture an idea (always have a pen and paper with you).

Allow your interns to make mistakes. An internship is about learning. People learn through mistakes. Create low-risk opportunities for your intern to fail and use those moments to help him or her think through what they could do differently. This mindset will help you think about what mistakes and failure mean to you and others with whom you work.

Learn how to ask. I think the No. 1 lesson that you can help an intern learn is how to ask. Toward the end of her summer internship, one of our interns came to me to ask for my help in setting priorities for several projects she was working on. I immediately praised her and said, “That’s the most important question you’ve asked me all summer.” and then I explained why. Asking for help or asking someone to do something (such as selling an idea to someone) is a skill that many people struggle with for their entire lives. 

Take time to listen. I try to make time to grab a cup of coffee with our interns and just listen. Listen to their experience so far. Listen to what they worry about for their careers. Listen to that which they aspire. Likewise, don’t be afraid to share your story about how you entered the work world, and what your career dreams and hopes are. Most young people genuinely want to know. 

Set up informational interviews. As time allows, seek out a couple of informational interviews for your interns. For example, I had a public relations intern who was interested in pursuing a career in video (filming, editing and production), so I introduced him to a friend who produces a TV program for our local PBS station. Similarly, another intern was interested in pursuing a political communications career, so I arranged a handful of interviews with various communicators working in politics and public affairs. 

Be a cheerleader! Interns grow up and eventually become employees, competitors and customers. Cheer your interns on to greater career success. Invite them to stay in touch and to seek out your counsel. Be quick to listen and be quick to inspire them to do great things. 

Pay it forward. Finally, make a point to tell your interns that years from now, they may be in the position of offering learning experiences to a high school or college student, and to pay back the favor by taking on an intern and sharing what they know. This is how we create that ripple effect of kindness that is so needed in today’s work world.

The Bottom Line: Building Lifetime Relationships; Sharing the Abundance of Your Wisdom

So what are internships really about? To me, it’s not so much about giving someone an opportunity to build their resume as it is an opportunity to share the abundance of your wisdom and your life-long passion for learning.

At the end of the day, it’s about investing in relationships and encouraging the next generation to follow your lead. In our omnipresent digital world, we need more people to build genuine, face-to-face relationships with trust at the core. Internships allow you and your organization to put that practice into action. 

Stephen Dupont, APR, is VP of Public Relations and Branded Content for Pocket Hercules (www.pockethercules.com), a creative branding powerhouse based in Minneapolis.  Contact Stephen Dupont (@stephendupont) at stephen.dupont@pockethercules.com.

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By Stephen Dupont, APR

“Who cares?”

If you find yourself working with an entrepreneur or the founder of a new company in building the story of a new venture, or you find yourself starting your own new business that intends on approaching institutional investors such as a venture capitalist, then “Who cares?” should be the first question you should ask yourself, according to Minneapolis venture capitalist, David Dalvey, founder of Brightstone Venture Capital.

With more than 25 years experience of reviewing and investing in early-stage business opportunities, Dalvey often knows within minutes in speaking with an entrepreneur as to whether to continue the conversation or not. His first, and by far the most important diligence screen, is the entrepreneur and his/her talent, passion, discipline and experience in the realization of their vision.

“Ninety percent of my decision to move forward is based on the person and the team,” says Dalvey. “From there, when I look at the business opportunity story presented by the entrepreneur, it quickly boils down to one primary question in my mind: “Who cares?” 

“More specifically, who will actually buy the product or service ultimately offered and why?” says Dalvey, whose venture capital firm manages a $100 million venture fund focused on early-growth stage investment opportunities, primarily in high tech and life sciences companies specializing in data storage management, VR/AR, enterprise security, regenerative medicine, drug discovery, gene editing, and a variety of other fast growing industries.

Brightstone is among approximately 750 active venture capital firms in the United States that completed 8,948 deals in 2018, investing more than $130.9 billion into privately held companies, according to PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor. Brightstone is a series A investor and typically invests about $1 million to $5 million into early-stage companies.

There comes a point in the life of many businesses for the need to raise capital to continue their growth. After friends and family as well as angel investors, venture capital (VC) firms, such as Brightstone, are often sought out by entrepreneurs as the next step, typically in a series of investment rounds, followed by additional investments from VCs, corporations (often a prelude to an acquisition), private equity firms, or an initial public offering (IPO).

Obtaining an investment from a well-recognized VC firm with a strong track record of investments is, for many entrepreneurs, their first “big sale” of their proposed “value” to be created in the proposition to the capital markets. The impact of a successful pitch can mean all the difference in not only attracting future investments that a growing business will need in the years to come, but more importantly, the entrepreneur’s ability to present a coherent and compelling pitch that attracts future customers.

Begins with the Founder

Whether a start-up is still an idea on a napkin or it has already grown into a small group of people who are ready to disrupt a market and change the world, Dalvey can’t emphasize enough the importance of the founder knowing his or her story down cold.

“I invest in people, not business plans,” says Dalvey. “I look at three things: One, what is the entrepreneur’s vision and what is his or her track record in business, especially in working for or starting other start-ups; two, what is the problem that they’re trying to solve (market need); and three, what is the size of the potential market in which the start-up intends to enter.”

Typical questions that Dalvey asks a business seeking venture capital include:

• Why did you start this business?
• What is the problem that you’re trying to solve?
• What is your (unique) solution to this problem?
• Who will your customer be for this solution?
• How big – in actual dollars – is the market?
• How much is this market growing annually?
• Who are your competitors?
• Why will you win over your competitors?
• If you started a business before, have any of the investors (outside of friends and family) invested in your new venture?

Many start-ups want to initially send potential investors a lot of information hoping that the investor will look at everything and then call them back with a check.  Dalvey suggests a brief one- or two-page executive summary that succinctly addresses the points above.  Once the entrepreneur has received initial interest from an investor, there should be a follow-up conversation where the CEO or founder should be able to answer these questions with crisp, clear answers, showing their command of the business.

“I need to clearly see that an entrepreneur has command of the ship,” Dalvey says. “They need to know where they want to go and articulate how much money it will take to get there to become a meaningful player in their target market.”

An entrepreneur who responds to a VC’s questions with responses such as: “I don’t know” or “I didn’t do the projections” will not impress Dalvey or other venture capitalists. Worse yet, making up an answer that is obviously wrong.

“You should be able to boil down the “why your business exists” into one sentence,” says Dalvey, “focusing on the problem solved and solution offered.”

Of course, getting the attention of a venture capital firm is just the first step toward securing funding for a new business. A venture capital firm will conduct its own due diligence about the founders of a business, their business model and the viability of the new product or service being offered. With a five-year time window, many VCs will want to see how a business will use its venture capital.

“Our investors are expecting a return of at least 10x their investments,” says Dalvey, “so an entrepreneur will need to convince me that they know what they’re doing to expand their business from, for example, $1 million in sales today, to $50 million in five years.”

Lessons for All Organizations

Dalvey’s insight offers lessons for organizations of all sizes – from multinational conglomerates to community nonprofits – seeking to raise money to fund expansion or donations to help more people or build support for a cause.

As organizations grow and become larger, their stories do become more complicated, and often diluted from what the original founder envisioned. However, here’s a simple test for communicators and marketers crafting the brand narrative: Can your CEO and other C-level executives in your organization clearly communicate why your organization matters today – now — in a crowded and competitive marketplace – in one sentence? Can all of your organization’s employees communicate what need the organization is trying to meet, who your customer is, and what your organization’s number one goal is?

Whether a business is making its first big sale to a venture capitalist such as Brightstone, or it’s making its 1 billionth sale, at the heart of every sale is communicating why a brand and its products and services matter to a customer.

Stephen Dupont, APR, is VP of Public Relations and Branded Content for Pocket Hercules (www.pockethercules.com), a creative brand powerhouse based in Minneapolis. He is a frequent contributor to PRSA’s Strategies & Tactics magazine, Forbes.com, and other publications, and speaks about branding, strategic foresight, and marketing communications. Contact Stephen Dupont (@stephendupont) at stephen.dupont@pockethercules.com.

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An abridged version of this article appeared in the March 2019 issue of Strategies & Tactics, published by PRSA.

Every day, you race by brand messages designed to grab your attention. 

Billboards along the freeway.

Sponsored posts on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Video pre-roll on YouTube. 

Emails from your favorite brands in your email box.

And if you’ve been paying close attention, you’ll notice that whether it’s a paid message, an owned message or an earned message (editorial), brand owners have mere secondsto grab your attention.

Whether our attention spans are actually becoming shorter, according to a 2015 study by Microsoft as reported in Time magazine, or not, the fact is, consumers are bombarded by so many messages throughout any given day, that marketers and communicators have never been as challenged as they are today in grabbing someone’s attention.

This is especially true if you’re trying to attract new customers to your brand.

The challenge is not merely getting attention. It’s making your message stick long enough that someone will pay attention to your next appeal — and the next one after that. 

It’s in those precious first seconds where brand building begins or, fails.

That’s because branding is not a logo. It’s not an ad. It’s not a positive story about your brand in the media. It’s not an event. Or a coupon. 

It’s a relationship between people – those who own the brand, the employees of an organization (business, nonprofit, government agency) and the person who needs a particular product or service. 

A brand is a promise

My friend Dan Wallace, co-author of The Physics of Brand, pointed out to me at a lunch one day, “Think of brands that have been around for a really long time. They were named after real people…Ford, DuPont, Nestle, Lloyds of London.”

It’s a fundamental principle of branding that we should never forget. At its core, branding is the experience that one human promises to another human. 

For example, when I need a really good donut, I go to Granny Donuts, near my home. Yes, the brand of these donuts is Granny Donuts, but behind the brand is Xuan To, the owner, and his wife, who emigrated to Minnesota following the Vietnam War. Every time I visit – from the very first time I stepped through the doors of their 70’s décor-style donut shop – I am greeted graciously and joyfully. And yes, the glazed blueberry Bismarck, my usual, is out of this world. 

It is that combination, a quality product or service that meets a need combined with the experience of buying and using it, that is the brand. 

This leads me to two other key points about branding that you, as someone who may be influencing the direction of a brand, should consider:

1.) The best way to capture a person’s attention is still, in this digital day of age, through a referral (word of mouth), and 

2.) to hold onto a person’s attention, you need to connect with a new consumer (employee, investor, vendor, etc.) emotionally. 

This is why it’s so important to never forget or take for granted those with whom you already have a brand experience.

Who is core to your brand?

All brands have a range of people who have a personal experience with that brand, from people who are super fans or enthusiasts – those who go out of their way to share their experience with as many people as possible — to the opposite extreme, brand haters, who, as you can imagine, look for every opportunity to trash or troll a brand to the world. Fortunately (and unfortunately), social media, review websites such as Yelp and Glassdoor, and email fuel the acceleration of both brand love and hate.

Your attention should be focused on your brand’s core enthusiasts. These people are, after all, the people who are most likely to refer your brand to someone looking for a product or service to fill a particular need. 

That’s how I found Granny Donuts. When my wife and I moved into our new home 12 years ago, my neighbor down the road, William, went on and on about how I had to try out Granny Donuts. And so I did, and in turn, I became a zealot. 

That same process has led me to many of my other favorite brands – Alta ski area, Trek bikes, Camp Widjiwagan, Ping golf clubs, the Montreal Canadiens, Toyota, REI, MoMA, Pearson’s Nut Goodie, among others.

And what is at the center of those shared experiences?

It’s stories. Stories told with emotion. 

Let’s admit it. We’re suckers for a good story. That’s why so many of us succumb to those end-of-the-year emotional appeals from nonprofit organizations.

It’s those same stories that engage our attention and lead to new brand experiences. 

As I was searching for Christmas gift ideas for my wife, I recalled this new brand started by my friend Kelly Groehler, APR, a Twin Cities public relations consultant. I loved her story, which caught my first seconds of attention: she loves art and wants to wear the art of female contemporary artists, so she teamed up with artist Kate Iverson to create this sassy startup brand – Alice Riot — which combines an art gallery and apparel line, offering women’s dresses, skirts and scarves that feature limited-edition prints by female artists.

Over the course of the past year, Kelly kept earning my attention with stories and images of businesswomen wearing Alice Riot.

A year after I first learned about Alice Riot – I bought an Alice Riot scarf for my wife Rebekah and immediately upon opening it, she loved it. And we both loved it even more when, on New Year’s Day, while having breakfast with some long-time friends, our friend Barbara immediately complimented my wife on her new scarf and another diner came up and said, “Is that an Alice Riot scarf?”

Alice Riot caught my attention with the story about how it was founded. It continued to engage my attention with more stories. Now my wife, after the purchase, has a story that she shares with others who ask her about her Alice Riot scarf. I think I’ll be buying more Alice Riot in the future.

This is branding at its fundamental best. 

Five key points:

How can you, as a marketer or communicator, get to this place with your brand? Here are five thoughts to consider:

Listen deeply– Take the time to go back to your customers and listen deeply to their experience with your brand – to what caught their attention, and why they stayed in engaged. Was there a compelling story that made them want to stick around?

Plant a flag in the ground– Stop trying to be everything to everyone. Plant a flag in the ground. Stand for your values. Stand up for your employees and customers. Choose a side. Stop saying it, just be it. 

Live your attitude– Have you ever wondered what attitude your brand is conveying and how that attitude is being emotionally received by your core fans and potential new fans? All brands, even something as simple as a branded donut, have an attitude. The question is, “Is it the attitude you want for your brand?” Find yours and start living it.

Collaborate with your customers– To find attention-grabbing stories, invite your stakeholders (employees, customers, investors, etc.) to share theirstories. That means collaborating with them and being confident enough in your brand to let customers share their brand experience on your social media. 

Kick the keyword habit – Key words sometimes may attract new visitors, but when all is said and done, it’s the best story – told with authenticity and conviction — that wins the day. 

Stephen Dupont, APR, is VP of Public Relations and Branded Content for Pocket Hercules (www.pockethercules.com), a brand marketing firm based in Minneapolis. He blogs at www.stephendupont.co. Contact him at stephen.dupont@pockethercules.com.

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